The Pola Museum of Art’s collection includes important works by major artists that enable visitors to trace the progression of modern and contemporary Western art. Highlights include 19th-century French Impressionists such as Monet and Renoir, Neo-Impressionists like Seurat and Signac, 20th-century Fauvists, and postwar Abstract Expressionists. Centered on masterworks from the museum’s collection, this exhibition examines the evolution of color in modern and contemporary art, with 10 new acquisitions presented for the first time.

In early 19th-century France, efforts to scientifically grasp the effects of light on color led to the development of color theory. This not only categorized color by hue (such as blue, yellow, or red) but also analyzed other dimensions such as brightness and saturation, clarifying principles like complementary color pairing and identifying novel color effects. This science of color continues to be utilized in digital technologies today. Mid-19th century scientific advancements also brought about new painting materials, enriching artists’ palettes and enabling them to apply theory-based chromatic effects on canvas. This exhibition explores the history of these breakthroughs, tracing the evolution of color in modern and contemporary Western painting.

In the early 20th century, advances in synthetic pigments led to the production of intensely color-saturated oil paints and new materials such as acrylic resin. Postwar American Abstract Expressionist painters embraced the possibilities of these new paints, experimenting with a wide range of techniques such as pouring, dripping, and staining. Deviating from conventional practices, these approaches disrupted the traditional image of the painter at an easel and enabled the creation of monumental canvases. The freewheeling, experimental spirit of these novel techniques, transcending conventional forms, left a legacy that inspires contemporary artists to this day.

This exhibition highlights contemporary artists who draw inspiration from modern and postwar painting, devoting themselves to the study of color-producing materials and chromatic composition. These artists select from both traditional and newly developed materials, freely combining them to produce distinctive works unconstrained by conventional forms. Meanwhile, other artists work with crafts, associated with the aesthetic principle of “utility and beauty,” or produce richly colorful three-dimensional works. These artists seek beauty in flat or semi-3D forms that retain traditional hues emerging from the inherent qualities of materials, in the context of interest in a comprehensive, decorative approach to space. Their engagement with color and application of its effects illuminates new possibilities for contemporary art of the future.

The world-renowned photographer and artist Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Opticks series is a masterpiece of color-field photography, magnifying the beautiful and delicate colors produced by a prism at large scale. Inspired by Isaac Newton’s book Opticks (1704), Sugimoto used a Polaroid camera to photograph the spectrum created by passing light through a prism. His process entailed repeatedly scanning Polaroid images of the infinite gradations of colors and enlarging them onto large-format photographic paper while finely adjusting the hues.

In the exhibition prologue we present these photographic works, which Sugimoto described as “a new kind of painting… with light as my pigment.”

Human beings perceive color as sensations on the retina, produced by those wavelengths of light that are reflected rather than absorbed by objects. Colors are defined based on the seven-color spectrum produced when white light is dispersed through a prism, and have the attributes of hue, brightness, and saturation. The colors we see are primarily those reflected by objects rather than those of light sources themselves. Among these, the colors of pigments are known as surface colors, as they emit light from their surfaces when illuminated. Color was traditionally viewed as a crucial factor, alongside drawing, in three-dimensional perspectival rendering when painters depicted (replicated) subjects on canvas.

However, since the dawn of the modern era, color has been seen as an element that liberates artists from the constraints of faithful replication of subjects and rigorous, perspective-based spatial composition. Notably, Impressionists such as Claude Monet rejected the notion that objects have inherent colors, and explored the myriad ways in which their subjects’ colors changed under different light conditions, pursuing the possibilities of independent chromatic expression. Subsequently, Fauvist painters such as Henri Matisse took this quest further, freeing color from the depicted subjects altogether and emphasizing the internal harmonies of colors on canvas. These advancements influenced postwar American movements such as Color Field Painting, as exemplified by Kenneth Noland, and Timeless Painting championed by Ad Reinhardt, both of which aimed to dismantle the traditional framework of painting by covering supports (such as canvases) with pure color, whether multi-hued or monochromatic. In Part 1 of this exhibition, we explore modern and contemporary art history as it relates to color, primarily through painting and sculpture.

Today, how are artists both in Japan and elsewhere exploring the possibilities of art in two dimensions, or in a zone between two- and three-dimensional forms, and how are they engaging with and expressing color? Their approaches, reflecting modern and postmodern color theory, employ an extraordinary range of materials to express color. While reflecting on the outcomes of experiments with light and color by famous artists of the past, contemporary artists produce works that compellingly convey the palette of our present era.

Naofumi Maruyama and Guo-Liang Tan, while deeply respecting postwar American Abstract Expressionists and Color Field pioneers such as Morris Louis and Helen Frankenthaler, have devised original methods for capturing flowing movement or translucency of color on canvas, distinct from the staining used by their predecessors. Meanwhile, in their repetitions of motifs, Taro Yamamoto and Kohei Yamada pay tribute to Andy Warhol and his celebration of mass production and consumption, while imbuing their repeated images with markedly vibrant hues. Aya Kawato and Hideto Ito fuse concepts from the fields of crafts and science on flat surfaces, continuously iterating patterns and images with color palettes and aesthetic sensibilities refined through their own unique modes of alchemy. Such artists’ insatiable curiosity is expanding possibilities for the future of art in Japan and elsewhere in Asia. In Part 2, we focus on remarkable explorations of color by contemporary artists from both Japan and abroad, and on the ideas and ways of thinking implicitly communicated by their engagement with physical expression through color.